Fire officials, tenants assess burned medical building in Oxnard

A day after a fire gutted parts of an Oxnard medical plaza, doctors, dentists and firefighters hauled out paper records, scorched computers and medical equipment Monday.

Fire officials said the Sunday morning fire gutted the second floor of the Channel Islands Medical Center at Lantana Street and West Gonzales Road. The first floor suffered extensive water damage, meaning the building’s dozen-plus tenants, ranging from a chiropractor to family medicine doctors, can’t return.

Investigators were still working on determining the fire’s cause, Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief Darwin Base said Monday. The blaze appears to have started on the second floor of the building and traveled to the attic and rooftop.

“Pretty much all of it went down,” Base said of the roof, adding there was no initial evidence to suggest suspicious activity.

The fire left more than a dozen doctors and dentists trying to assess the damage and scrambling to arrange temporary quarters. One dentist’s office manager posted a sign at the front of the plaza telling patients what happened. A physician’s call service provided her with a list of patients that she called with medical advice.

As they hauled off boxes of supplies in vehicles that included a moving van, many of the doctors praised the advent of electronic records.

“Most of the information we need is computerized,” said Dr. Jeffrey Stein, a dentist who was working on how to best take care of his staff and patients.

Dr. Josephine Soliz is part of Rose Ave. Family Medical Group, which was housed in the damaged building and treats as many as 10,000 patients. Their records were backed up.

The family doctors think they’ve already found temporary offices next to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. Soliz said they could be ready to see patients within several days.